Sunday, October 7, 2012

Presidential Debate: Where are the women?

On Oct. 3,
President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney squared off in the
first presidential debate, in which independent parties were prohibited from
participating. The debate was focused on domestic policy, and the candidates
primarily sparred on taxes, Social Security, and the federal deficit. Despite
the White House’s assurances that they are on the women’s side of the War on
Women, Obama’s only mention of women was an anecdote about his grandmother.
Nobody mentioned that October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Many have blamed moderator Jim Leher for not asking any
questions on women’s issues, but Leher does not write the questions. In fact, a
private nonprofit corporation named the Commission on Presidential Debates
crafts the event. The CPD claims to be non-partisan; however, its co-chairs are
Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., chairman of the Republican National Committee from
1983-1989, and Mike McCurry, press secretary of the Clinton administration. The rest of the
board reads as a who’s who of Democratic and Republican party stalwarts, and
wealthy philanthropists. No other parties are represented. The content and
style of the debates is primarily decided by the campaigns themselves. The
Commission brings the production to fruition and makes sure that the moderators
are to the candidates’ liking.

The CPD has had the same Executive Director since its
inception, Janet H. Brown. In 1988 Brown held a press conference about the
League of Women Voters (LWV) announcement that they will no longer host
presidential debates. In response to a question asking whether the next debate
would happen, Brown said, “We will wait to see what is the consensus of the two
campaigns.”

While Brown’s statements dodged the issue of accountability
to the American people, the LWV’s statement from October 1988 was quite clear:

“The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of
the presidential debates … because the demands of the two campaign
organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become
clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list
of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to
tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the
hoodwinking of the American public.”

The independent media show “Democracy Now!” sponsored a
debate that allowed Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Justice Party
candidate Rocky Anderson to respond to the same questions asked of Obama and
Romney. Neither candidate brought up women’s issues, such as
contraception or equal wages. As for health care, candidate Anderson said that
he supported a “single-payer Medicare-for-all system,” and candidate Stein said
that she supported Medicare for all.

A closer look at both the Green and Justice Parties’
platforms on women reveal a disconcerting lack of information. Rocky Anderson
wrote that he supports abstinence for teens; the statement appeared in an
article about parental notification, under a section entitled Family Planning,
which is the party’s one and only allusion to women’s issues. The Green Party
does have a section on Women’s Rights, which has two points: supporting UN
protocol to prevent human trafficking, and a call for the U.S. to ratify the UN Women’s Bill of
Rights. This bill was signed by the U.S. in 1980, and calls for the
signatory parties “to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures,
including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against
women” [Article 2(b)]. The Green Party does not propose any actions that would
enact this Bill of Rights.

For two years, the media has been covering the War on Women.
This war, waged against contraception, abortion, and employment rights, has
been framed as being perpetrated primarily by Republicans and other right-wing
groups such as the Tea Party. The Democrats have managed to escape blame for
allowing anti-women laws to be passed, emphasizing their support for such
legislation as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Violence Against Women Act
(VAWA), and the Affordable Care Act (more popularly known as “Obamacare”).

However, these legislative initiatives do very little to
protect the rights of women in practice. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
provides women with more time to file a complaint of pay discrimination based
on gender, but doesn’t make any provisions for fair pay. Biden’s VAWA is up for
reauthorization this year, but the Democrats have not fought to maintain it,
and as we go to press it has not been reauthorized.

Finally, Obamacare, which mandates that all Americans
purchase private health insurance, has many loopholes that allow employers to
decline giving women coverage for contraception and birth control. It must also
be remembered that the anti-women Stupak Amendment to the health-care bill,
which de-funded insurance coverage for abortions, was proposed by a Democrat.

While paying occasional lip service to women in order to
garner votes, the Democrats do not stand for women’s rights in practice.
Casting a ballot for Obama in November will do nothing to ensure that women’s
rights won’t continue to be rolled back at an alarming rate. Ultimately, in
order to win equality, women must break politically with both capitalist
parties, Democrats and Republicans, and build a mass movement in the streets.

> The article
above was written by Alice Richard and is reprinted from Socialist Action.